Tuesday, 26 February 2008

Trades 26/Feb/2008

SNDA (gap up)After the gap up, the price moves above the OR on 2nd candle. The next 3 candles consolidate above the OR high. The 5th candle is bullish. It bounces off the EMA and closes at its high. This is our trigger candle.

Entry: 33.38 Stop: 32.80Fib Ext: 33.801R=33.96 2R=34.54 3R=35.12

The price moves up nicely after entry. Since the Fib Ext target is close by, we are prepared for this to be a quick trade for 40c. Closed half of position at Fib Ext and the rest was stopped out as break even. A small profit, but still ok.

RRI (gap up)

Gap up was followed by a choppy trend up within the OR. We move above the OR on the 7th candle. The 9th candle is green NR7 dragnflyish type which bounces up from the OR high and is our trigger.

Entry: 24.15 Stop: 23.92Fib Ext: 24.541R= 24.38 2R=24.61 3R=24.84

The price moved gently upwards, but didn't really get going. It failed to reach the Fib ext and we closed at end of the day at 24.45 for a 30c profit.

M (gap up)

After gap up and quick 'look' above the OR we retreat back into OR on the 3rd candle. However the buyers step in and it reverses quickly to form a green long tail doji type. It closes above the OR and also closes at its high. This is our trigger candle.

Entry: 25.68 Stop: 25.40Fib Ext: 26.201R=25.96 2R= 26.24 3R=26.52

Price moved up initially, but we were stopped out at breakeven. There was a 2nd chance to enter on the 10th candle which was a NR3 bar closing above the OR and the EMA and also closing at its high. However I missed this opportunity.

4 comments:

On RRI the 1st 15 min candle's high was 24.01. That 13th candle dipped down below the opening range by .01. Since your stop was at 23.92 it missed you. What made you decide to put the stop below the EMA of the trigger bar and not just below the trigger bar itself?

I admire your discipline and letting your trades work themselves out, not taking profit to soon.

Stops can be subjective at times. In most cases I would have my stop below the trigger candle. In fact it would normally be around 2 or 3cents from trigger bar. So just taking that information alone would have kept us in the trade. (Trigger bar low=24.02 13th bar low=24.01 , Stop=23.99).

In this case however other factors also influenced my stop. Firstly the OR high is very close to my trigger bar low. So I would use the OR high as my stop "basis" and take of 2/3c from this. But the other important factor here is the whole number (i.e. $24). If we are near a whole number then I tend to give it a bit more room. Hence my stop was a few more cents away than normal.

This is what I have found to be the toughest thing in trading. It helps having set targets such as the Fib Ext and 1R,2R etc as you can set your up your orders in advance.

The other thing in my view is the conundrum of staying in front of the PC to watch your trade but not messing with your stops and profit orders. It is very difficult to sit there and see the price go against you and not take profits or get out etc.

It probably helps sometimes to get away from the PC. In my case this does happen because of work and travelling home etc. It's a bit of a trade off, since I may miss a candle closing below the OR to get out earlier with a smaller loss. On the other hand I have in the past moved my stop too early to Breakeven after seeing the price retreat.

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All views and information expressed on this blog represent my opinion and analysis, based on data available to me at the time of writing. The watch lists and chart setups are my own and are not in any way recommendations to buy or sell securities